Earth Two #20 – Review

By: Tom Taylor (story), Barry Kitson (art), Robson Rocha (pencils), Oclair Albert (inks), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: Can you really blame anyone for not wanting to outside on Earth Two right now?

The Review: Do you realize that it’s been half a year since this most recent disaster struck Earth Two?  Most Big Events have usually concluded within that timeframe, yet this arc looks as if it’s going to stretch on beyond that for another few issues.  You might be able to endure this if there was enough happening in each issue to make it worth the month’s wait, but with what Taylor and Robinson have given us so far, it just feels like time you’re never getting back.

For my hard-won money, any page that doesn’t add something new to the story is a page you shouldn’t have paid for.  There are many such pages in this issue, from Jimmy Olsen pointlessly geeking out over Lois Lane’s robotic body to Khalid’s traumatized ramblings to the corrupted Superman directing a host of Parademons to tear down every religious structure in the world.  It’s not so much that these scenes are badly written or anything; they just do little more than repeat information we’re already well-acquainted with, and we’ve had too much of that already.